SICS on the list of TIME's Best Inventions of 2008

 
30. The Internet Of Things
In September, a group of high-tech companies that includes Cisco and Sun formed the IP for Smart Objects Alliance. Simply put, the organization intends to create a new kind of network that will allow sensor-enabled physical objects — appliances in your home, products in a factory, cars in a city — to talk to one another, the same way people communicate over the Internet.

Read the article and see the other inventions on the list on Time.